Monday Inspiration – Julia Ward Howe

After a much needed break from blogging, I’m back with the next installment of my Victorian women writer’s series.

Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819-October 17, 1910) is best known today as the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Although famous in her own lifetime as a poet, essayist, lecturer, reformer and biographer, she isn’t that well known today.

She worked toward ending slavery, took part in initiating the women’s movement and aided organizations seeking international peace.

Julia was born in New York City to Julia Rush Cutler and Samuel Ward. She was the third of six children. Ward was a wealthy banker and Julia was tutored at home, as well as attending private schools. She studied literature, languages, science and mathematics, learning French in early childhood; adding Italian, German, Latin and Greek at a later age.

She left school at the age of 16 and, in her words, “began thereafter to study in good earnest.” She continued all through her life reading literature, history and philosophy. By age 20, she’d written literary criticism that was published anonymously in the Literary and Theological Review and the New York Review.

When Julia was five, her mother died, leaving her father to dominate his children’s lives. Samuel Ward was protective of his children, and although an Episcopalian and strict Calvinist, he married into the Astor family and allowed them to enjoy the fashionable social scene.

Julia was high-spirited and extremely popular among the socialites.

After the death of her father in 1839, she returned to the religion she’d been brought up with, although she continued to read and be exposed to liberal ideas. She wrote, “I studied my way out of all the mental agonies which Calvinism can engender and became a Unitarian.”

She visited the New England Institute for the Blind and there met Samuel Gridley Howe. Eighteen years her senior, he began to court her and they were married in April, 1843.

A week later, they sailed to Europe, but six weeks later, Julia had moved to second place in her husband’s life, taking a back seat to his work and close male friends.

Their first child was born in Rome in 1844. The couple had five children over the next twelve years, then a sixth, who died in early childhood.

They made their home in Boston, which meant a radical change for Julia. They lived two miles from the city proper and the only public conveyance was an omnibus, operating only once every two hours. Her social life was stifled.

To her husband’s displeasure, she continued to publish poems. In 1850, they traveled to Europe with the two youngest children. Samuel returned alone to Boston, and Julia stayed in Rome with the children.

When she returned, Samuel purchased a summer home in Newport, Rhode Island. Here Julia could once again enjoy the social outings she missed out on at their home in Boston.

She continued to publish poems anonymously, but her secret was discovered. Her husband, now of 20 years, was angered and they considered divorce, but his demands to keep two of their children, ended the matter for Julia. In a letter to her sister, she wrote, “…rather than be forced to leave two of my children…I made the greatest sacrifice I can ever be called upon to make.”

She stayed in the marriage and concessions were made on both sides. She continued to write and publish poetry and also wrote a play.

In the 1850’s Julia was drawn into William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery group. She admired the abolitionist leaders, including Wendell Phillips and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. When the Civil War broke out, the Howe’s joined the Sanitary Commission. After viewing a Confederate attack on Union troops, the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” started to form in her mind. She wrote the poem and it was published in The Atlantic under the title, “The Battle Hymn”. She was paid five dollars.

The poem was set to music and swept the North.

Julia appeared in public both during and after the war, reading her poetry, essays and also lecturing.

In 1868, Julia founded the New England Woman’s Club. She was involved in the New England Woman Suffrage Association and served as president from 1868 through 1877.

She continued to travel with her husband and after his death, took an extensive lecture tour to raise money for a trip to Europe and the Middle East with her youngest daughter, Maud.

She led a busy social life and continued to write and lecture. Julia was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1908.

She died on October 17, 1910. Her letters and journals are in the Houghton Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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9 Responses

Wonderful post, Susan. No wonder Julia Ward Howe looks so sad in her photo. How sad to be stifled by one’s husband. Thank heavens, my husband helps me write by doing the covers, etc. and encourages me. Just think what Mrs. Howe could have accomplished with her husband’s support and encouragement.

Thank you for the back ground on this wonderful woman. I never knew that she was faced with divorce and the loss of her two younger children, but such were the times. I’m glad that she didn’t give up. She’s a testament to talent and staying the course. Freedom moved in her life in many ways than the words to The Battle Hymn.

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Victorian Romance

About the Author

Susan Macatee writes American Civil War romance, some with a paranormal twist. From time travels to vampire tales, her stories are always full of love and adventure.

She’s spent many years as a Civil War civilian reenactor with the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment. She's a wife, mother of three grown sons, and has recently become a grandmother. She spends her free time inhaling books, watching baseball games and favorite old movies.